One Month Healthy
by skystar234
Summary: The last time Emma trusted a group, they filed her under 'walker fodder'. So when she meets up with a group of survivors from Atlanta, all she wants to do is get what she needs and get away. Too bad that it's never quite as simple as all that. [Rick/OC] While I do love Daryl, he gets the majority of the stories. I'll get to him some other time, but I'm giving Rick a shot now.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note/Disclaimer: **I do not own The Walking Dead, and I actually don't even own Crawford. For those of you who've played The Walking Dead Game, you'll know about it. I thought it would be fun to bring it into the regular series, so it may pop up again later (or one of the characters from the game, I haven't decided yet). In light of The Walking Dead starting up again, I've decided to start putting this story out there along with my other one, so let me know how I'm doing! I'll do my best to update decently.

**Chapter 1:**

Of all the decisions that Emma had made in her life, moving to Savannah Georgia had to be the dumbest one. Quickly followed by her decision to steal a car in the lot with no air conditioning. The heat- or, more specifically, the humidity- was killer.

Of course, that wasn't the only killer roaming these days…

Emma shook herself. 'No need to think about the fact that people are starting to come back from the dead to eat each other,' she thought furiously. 'Or…that place. Just focus on surviving.'

Right now, surviving meant water. Just because she could practically drink the air did not mean she wasn't going to get dehydrated eventually.

Emma had run in to car trouble after a few hours from Savannah, and so had to store the gas she'd had for three days before finding a workable car. The second car had a map in the passenger side door. Consulting it, Emma realized that she was pretty near Atlanta by now. She also realized that just outside of Atlanta by now. She also realized that just outside of Atlanta there was an abandoned quarry, which, theoretically, would have plenty of water. She looked at the empty jug gallons in the back seat, the prickle in her throat becoming more pronounced.

"Guess I'm going to Atlanta." She said dryly, pulling to the proper turn off.

_**TWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWD**_

As Emma drop up through the hills towards her water source, she actually missed the turn off trying to remember how long you had to boil water before it was drinkable. 'Was it 30 minutes… I think it was 30 minutes…' She thought, absently passing the turn and going straight.

She did have a kettle in the back, and some matches. With all these trees around she could find some wood to burn…or maybe she could ask those people over there if they had any…oh shit.

She stopped the car slowly, making sure she had her gun on her hip. She hadn't come across any living people since she'd left, and she couldn't be sure they'd be friendly. Especially when two or three of them were already pointing guns at her.

"Crap." Emma muttered, sighing at the number of cars and people. "Should've payed attention." She turned off the engine and cracked the window.

"You going to shoot if I step out?" She called to the group.

There was a pause before one called back. "Only if you do."

Fair's fair, she supposed. She shrugged and slowly got out of the car, hands slightly raised. She knew that they would be able to see her gun, but she wasn't about to go out without it!

There were three guys in the front holding guns- one Mexican, one with curly black hair and combat boots, and one with short brown hair in jeans. What surprised Emma was the group of people behind them- some men, some women, an older guy, even a couple of kids.

At once Emma relaxed a little. 'They have kids,' She thought to herself. 'They're not the same as…them.'

The man in the combat boots stepped forward, almost aggressively. "How'd you get up here?" He demanded.

Emma shrugged. "Used a map. Saw there was an old quarry around here and figured I could get some water." She eyed a few water jugs in the back of a Jeep parked behind the group. "But I guess that you guys control that?"

"Our camp uses it," The man with the brown hair clarified. He looked just as tense as the others, as well as comfortable with his weapon as the first guy who'd spoken. But this one seemed much less aggressive. Emma decided to try her luck with him.

"I'm really sorry to have bothered you," She said sincerely, directly to him rather than the three. "I just came for some water. I can get some and be on my way."

The two men glanced at each other. "You alone?" The first one asked.

Emma nodded. "I used to be with people. Didn't work out." She shrugged. "I've only been on my own for a few days."

The guns lowered slightly, but the combat boots still looked suspicious. "Who were you with?" He fired at her. "And why did you leave?" Immediately Emma stiffened.

Both the Mexican and Jeans looked at the guy sharply. "Shane, that's not our business," Jean guy said, which Emma appreciated.

"The hell its not, Rick! No one just wanders away from a group voluntarily. We need to think about who this woman is and who she may be leading up here!" The combat boots guy- Shane- retorted.

Emma stepped forward, making the guns jerk up again. "Who I am is Emma Conway," She said carefully, raising her hands. "I moved to Savannah two years ago from New Hampshire. No one-" She emphasized this strongly- "No one is looking for me or following me. I'm just trying to survive like the rest of you."

There was another pause filled with tension, but Jeans Guy closed the gap between them and held out a hand to shake. "I'm Rick Grimes." He offered. "That's Shane Walsh and Morales." Morales nodded at her and she returned the gesture. Shane just grunted.

"I'm sorry about that," Rick said, and Emma smiled a little.

"No worries. You're protecting your camp. I just didn't realize I was so threatening," she joked.

More people from the camp started coming closer, like deer scared of a gunshot. There were a couple of blonde girls, a young Asian guy, a brunette woman with her hand on the shoulder of a little boy, another woman with a little girl, and the older man with a fishing hat.

Emma waved awkwardly at the before shoving her hands into her back pockets.

"There are other people out there?" One of the blonde girls asked, sort of excited. "More groups like us?"

Emma hesitated. "I'm sure there are," She said neutrally.

"You said you were with other people," Shane said, narrowing his eyes.

Emma sighed. "I was, but they were nothing like you." She said, almost tired. "They aren't a group you want to hook up with."

"Can you tell us anything?" Rick prodded a little. "Anything at all? We might run into these guys at some point."

"You won't." Emma said with certainty. "They're all shacked up in Savannah, it's highly doubtful they'll wander off. Unless the apocalypse happens again."

That explanation didn't seem to do much to settle the crowd. Emma knew that explaining wasn't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and Rick had a point when he said that they might run into them. They needed to know what some people were capable of. There was just one small part of her that wanted to keep those secrets buried.

"It's called Crawford." She said reluctantly. Everyone perked up, seeing she was finally spilling about other survivors.

"After everything started going to hell, one neighborhood in Savannah blocked itself off from everything else. Started forming their own little Utopia- scavenged food, guns, gas, anything that might be useful. While the rest of the world around them went to shit, they survived. If you lived there, you had guards, a place to stay, food and water." She took a breath. "On the face of it, Crawford was a paradise."

"Then the rules started coming down on us."

Emma leaned against the hood of her car, pulling her hair into a ponytail- a nervous habit she'd picked up years ago.

"Crawford wanted to make sure it survived. To do that, they decided to start cutting out weaknesses. They started weeding out people that they thought couldn't pull their own weight. Anyone who was old, or sick and required special care, any…" She looked at the little girl and boy sadly, "…any children, they all were ruled as a waste of precious resources. And Crawford couldn't afford to waste resources."

There was a long silence. Emma saw both mothers clutch their children closer. The older man ran a hand over his face. Shane and Rick both looked sick.

"They…they _killed_ them?" The Asian kid asked. "All of them?"

Emma smiled wryly. "The old and sick. They started rounding them up like cattle and leading them off to be killed." She left out the fact that they were killed inside the hospital. She left out that Crawford stacked the bodies around their 'borders' to warn people away.

"The children were just kicked out, with their parents, and left to fend for themselves."

After she finished, everyone just looked shell-shocked. They had always thought the danger came from the Walkers, but apparently the living could be just as deadly.

"That's why you left?" Rick finallya sled. Emma knew it was coming, and really at this point, there was no reason to lie. The more you lied, the easier it was to get tangled up in what you told people, and the more likely you were to lose their trust anyways.

"Mostly. But I know if I hadn't, they'd have come for me sooner or later." She crossed her arms. "When I was in college, I was diagnosed with lupus; it's an auto-immune thing. It's not going to kill me or anything, but it affects my joints and sometimes makes me slow down. Under Crawford's list of what was and wasn't allowed, I was under the 'walker fodder' category."

No one seemed to know what to say to that, and Emma didn't really need them too. She'd had lupus long enough that it didn't really phase her anymore. They wanted honesty and she'd given it to them.

"So that's why I'm alone." She said, shrugging. "Been that way for almost a week and I've survived. So really when I tell you I stumbled here by accident, I mean it. And when I tell you that I don't anything other than water, I mean it."

Rick stepped forward with a sympathetic look on his face. "We believe you," He said softly, though Emma could tell that didn't apply to the whole group. Plenty were still eyeing her suspiciously. "You know, our camp is pretty secure, and we could always use more hands-"

"Woah woah woah, Rick!" Shane burst out, grabbing the other man's shoulder. "You hear one little sob story and you're just going to let her right in?"

Both Rick and Emma bristled. "What are you suggesting, that we just throw her back out there?" Rick asked, voice hard.

"Look man, we don't know anything about this chick except the sob story she just told us. For all we know, she was part of that town and she left anyway!" Shane argued. "We've got to think about the mouths we have to feed already! How do we know what good she'd even be?"

"Excuse me." The words were quiet, but the venom behind them was overwhelming. "SHE is right here, and SHE can hear every word you're saying!" Emma hated being treated like a special case, but she hated more when people acted as though she was using her "special case" to her advantage. She did have some self-respect.

Shane just rolled his eyes. "You want a prize for that or something, princess?"

"Look, I didn't come here to join up with another group!" Emma snapped. "I just want to get some water and I'll be out of your hair! I'll even trade you for it, if that makes you feel any better."

Rick moved like he was going to protest, but Shane stopped him. "Trade what?"

Emma did a quick mental inventory. "I've scavenged a lot of medicine along the way here- antibiotics, pain meds, that sort of thing. I can give you a couple of boxes for a couple of hours to get water."

Seeing that Shane was not backing down, Rick could only sigh. "That sounds like a fair arrangement," He said.

Emma retreated into her car and pulled out a couple of boxes of cold medicine, antibiotics and pain meds. She also threw in a bottle of Aloe, knowing that a sunburn now would be a pretty big pain that no one needed. She jumped out of the car, walked up to Rick and started handing him items. Shane seemed like he was more in charge, but he was a jerk and Rick seemed like a reasonable person. She actually respected him.

"I'm sorry about this," He said as he took the medicine. "I can talk to Shane, you shouldn't have to go-"

"It's fine." Emma said shortly. "I wasn't coming to find a new group. I just wanted some time to get some water."

She kind of felt bad for snapping at him, but she had just told a group of strangers her weakness, and she was getting kicked out without ever being let in. She really didn't owe them anything.

Right now, she just wanted water.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note/ Disclaimer: **I do not own The Walking Dead. It would be fantastic, but if I did own them I probably wouldn't let anyone die and then it wouldn't be as good a show. I own the seasons that are available to own, so I am going to do my absolute best to stay as close to the actual script as I can (I know how much it annoys me when the wording is a little off) but I will not only be using show script. There is a difference, however subtle. So feel free to drop me a review or PM me if there's anything you want to tell me! And thank you to Panda Bandit for my first review on this story, you guys have no idea how happy reviews make me!

**Chapter Two: **

The group started to disperse after Emma handed over the medicine. Shane gave most of it to the older man, whose name was Dale and apparently who owned an RV where the group stored stuff. Before leaving, Shane allotted Emma three hours to go down to the quarry and get some water.

She was still a little irked by the way she'd been treated. Sure, she hadn't expected to be welcomed with open arms, but she had been rebuffed with so much force you'd have thought she'd been part walker.

As she got a fire going, Emma tried her best to calm down. These people had to look after their own, and it was a good thing to do. She didn't need to be back in a group anyway- not after last time.

It took about a half an hour before the fire was warm enough to boil anything, and by the time Emma had boiled her first two pots the group was coming down to do their chores. A group of women sat at the base of the road doing the camp's laundry, making Emma scoff. Back to the Middle Ages, weren't they?

They kept glancing towards her, as if they thought she might jump like a violent animal any minute. Emma just waved at them and kept checking the water for bubbles.

"Hi." A shy voice came from behind Emma made her jump and put a hand on her waist. She whirled to see the little boy from before blinking at her innocently.

"Jeez kid," She sighed, allowing her hand to relax. "Give a girl some warning. I could've thought you were a walker."

The boy tilted his head a little. "Sorry. But Shane says that walkers don't talk." He fidgeted a little bit. "My name's Carl."

Emma softened a bit. "Hi Carl. My name is Emma." She glanced over at the group of women, looking for the brunette that she assumed was his mother. "What are you doing out of camp?"

It was a legitimate question. This kid was only eleven or twelve, and Emma would bet her life that he hadn't made it this long because he knew how to protect himself.

"Shane said he's going to teach me how to catch frogs!" Carl said brightly, staring into her pot. "What are you doing?"

"I'm boiling water to drink," Emma said, getting one of her jugs ready. "There's no point in drinking something that's going to make you sick." She highly doubted that there were actually any frogs in this quarry, but she supposed they had to give Carl something to do.

"Dad said we should have let you stay," Carl said, making Emma glance up. That ruled Shane out as his Dad then. Rick maybe? "He said that Shane didn't need to be judging you."

Emma smiled wryly. "Shane isn't the first person to do that, kid. But thank your dad for sticking up for me. He didn't have to."

She continued to watch the water in silence, but she could tell that Carl was squirming to talk. "How can you tell when the water's done?" He asked, glancing into the pot.

Even before the world had ended, Emma hadn't had much experience with kids. The only time she'd tried to babysit a neighbor's kid, the baby girl had cried for her mother until she got tired and fell asleep, no matter what Emma had tried. To say that she wasn't a little intimidated by this kid's interest in her would be a lie.

"Usually I wait a half hour, to be on the safe side," She said, poking her stick into the fire. "It doesn't get rid of any chemicals or anything- I'd need a special filter for that- but this kills the bacteria. I'm sure you do this in your camp."

"Yeah, but no one explains it." Carl said, plopping down next to her. "They're all busy with chores. Sophia and I just do schoolwork and don't learn about camp stuff."

As important as learning to survive was, Emma was impressed that the camp was still trying to make things normal for the kids. It was just so…human.

"Carl! What are you doing over there?" The army boots stomping towards the two of them didn't bode well, and as Emma looked up, neither did that face. "You shouldn't be over here on your own!"

He threw Emma a dirty look that made her bristle. "I wasn't going to cook him and eat him," She muttered.

Shane narrowed his eyes. "Why are you even still here? We told you that you couldn't join us- hanging around isn't going to change our minds."

Emma snorted. "Believe me, I don't need you to change your minds. Based on the level of welcome I'e received thus far, I want to get enough water to get as far away as possible," She snarked.

Shane crossed his arms. He looked like he was about to say something else, probably even less complimentary than before, but they both glanced at Carl. The boy was looking at them worriedly.

"Just get going when you're done." Shane muttered before steering Carl away towards the water so they could go 'catch frogs'. Carl glanced back over his shoulder and waved, and Emma waved back at him with a small smile.

'Cute kid,' She thought to herself absently as she started pouring the cleaner water into a jug. Only another hour or so…

_**TWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTW**_

Emma was just finishing up with her last bucket of water when Carl's mother went stomping by her to Shane and Carl. Shane had made sure to put himself in a position where he could keep an eye on Emma during the 'frog-catching' which, quite frankly, had been pretty annoying.

"Carl. What did I tell you about leaving Dale's sight?" Her voice was tight, and Emma couldn't help but wonder what the problem was. Shane was a jackass to her sure, but he clearly cared about Carl and she didn't fancy a walker's chances against him.

"But Shane said we could-"

"It doesn't matter what Shane says, it matters what I say. Go on. Back to camp. I'm right behind you." 

Carl's face fell and he trudged past Emma to head back up the hill. Emma felt bad for him, because he'd been enjoying himself, which probably didn't happen all that much anymore.

Emma also know that whatever happened next was not only none of her business, but something she didn't want to hear, so she ducked her head and tried to pack up her stuff as quickly as she could. Unfortunately, she wasn't deaf.

"I gotta tell ya, I do not think you should be taking this out on him," Shane said lowly. He and Carl's mother were slightly hidden behind the rocks, so Emma couldn't see them, but she could sense the tension all the way over by her little fire.

"You don't tell me what to do, you lost that privilege."

Ouch.

"Lori…could you just, just wait up for a second? I think we should talk-"

"No, that's over too. You can tell that to the frogs."

Emma could tell this was about really awkward really fast, so she started scrambling to pack up and get the hell out of there. She didn't know what sort of dysfunction this group had and she didn't want to. Some of the wood she collected started hitting her pot. Part of her hoped the noise would either cover up the conversation or alert Lori and Shane that someone else was around, but no such luck.

"-and you don't think I'm happy about that? He's my best friend!"

"Why would you be? You are the one who told me that he died!"

Emma didn't know exactly what she was hearing, but she knew it was time to go. As Lori stomped out from behind the rocks, she started securing her jugs of water in the backseat of her car.

Just as she secured the last one, shouting from farther down the bank alerted her to another issue in this group.

The woman she'd seen earlier with the little girl had just been hit across the face by a large man- one of the girls had pulled her away while the others started pushing him away, screaming at him. Emma put a hand on the handle of her knife, wondering what to do. This was not her group, she had no right to get involved. But…no asshole had the right to abuse any woman.

Before she could move more than an inch, Shane was stomping past her and pulling the man off the group of girls.

Before the beginning to beat his face in.

Immediately Emma was taken back to the screams that had come from the hospital late at night, the ones she'd tried to block out with a pillow over her head while knowing that she could be next. The ones from people taken to be exterminated.

'Not again,' she thought weakly, putting a hand on her car to steady herself. 'Not more turning.'

In the end, it wasn't turning into a walker that really scared Emma- it was the people turning on each other.

"Shane! Shane stop it!" The group of girls were screaming at him until he finally dropped the collar of the other man's shirt. The woman who'd been initially hit ran to his still body, sobbing apologies, as the other women stared at Shane in shock.

They began to carry the man back up to the camp, leaving Shane alone at the base of the road. He was breathing heavily as he stared at his hand, still clenched in a fist, dripping blood.

His head shot up so that he met Emma's horrified gaze, and the intensity in his eyes made Emma's blood run cold. The message was plenty clear.

_**Get. Out. **_


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note/ Disclaimer:** Happy Halloween everyone! What better way to celebrate than with a new chapter of a Walking Dead story?! What's everyone else dressing up as? For those of you who watch Supernatural, I'm going to be Bloody Mary from season 1. As per usual, I do not own The Walking Dead, sadly. Read and review, and many thanks to Panda Bandit and chibi-DJ-pon3 for their reviews on last week's chapter!

**Chapter Three: **

Emma took no time at all getting out of there- she didn't know Shane or what he was capable of but she'd seen that look in his eyes before. That much hate…directed towards anyone…it spelled out death.

She didn't want that look directed at her.

She drove back up to the camp to give them a cursory heads-up that she was leaving. Morales and Dale were the only ones there, said something about Rick leading a group out to recover a lost group member.

As Emma walked back to her car, Dale followed her. She slid into the front seat and he leaned on her window.

"You don't have to go, you know," He said, looking at her earnestly. "I'm sure once Rick gets back, he can talk Shane around into letting you stay, Shane listens to him most of the time. It's not right to just throw you back out there, not on your own."

Emma smiled at the older man gently. She got the feeling that he was sort of the group grandpa, always looking out for everyone else. It was nice to be worried about, but she'd been on her own for quite some time before the world had ended. She was used to it.

"It's fine, Dale." She said, smiling gently. "Like I said before, I wasn't looking to join up with anyone. I don't need to stay."

There was a pause as Emma looked at a map she had taped at the top of her windshield, trying to figure out the best backroads out of there.

"Where will you go?" Dale asked. "You said you were from New Hampshire, right?"

"Yeah, but that's a long way to go…especially when I'm pretty sure I'm not going to find anyone waiting there for me." There was another silence after that, but this one was long, awkward and sad.

"Thanks for everything," Emma said at least, shifting the car into gear. "I hope you guys do okay."

Dale waved as Emma drove off. She looked back at the camp in her rearview, sighing. At least four kids, some older folks. Sure, there were some people with survival experience, but there were some that were unstable. She could still feel Shane's hateful gaze on her.

_**TWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWD**_

"You've got to be freaking kidding me." Emma groaned, smacking the front of her car in frustration as steam billowed out of the engine. Just as she had made the decision to leave the camp as far behind her as she could, of course her engine died. Her dad taught her how to change a tire, not how to fix a damn engine!

Emma pushed her hair out of her face and glanced at the horizon. She'd spent a lot of the day boiling water, and the sun was going to be completely down soon. She didn't like traveling after dark- the noise and lights drew walkers like flies and if she ran into a traffic snarl she was just boxing herself in.

She hadn't even gotten that far, she could still faintly hear the murmuring from the campsite. She supposed she'd have to walk all of her things out to the highway and find a new car tomorrow morning. Perhaps giving up some of those meds was going to be more helpful than she thought.

Emma slammed the hood down and curled up in the back seat of her car, settling in for the night. She pulled jackets and blankets over the windows, but kept one cracked open for air and to keep cool.

'Nothing I can do about it tonight,' She thought glumly. 'Might as well get some sleep.'

_**TWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWDTWD**_

Emma awoke with a jolt a few hours later with a start. For a moment, she wasn't even sure what had woken her up. She could hear crickets chirping and cicadas. She yawned and stretched, wanting to go back to sleep, but something was off…she couldn't imagine what it was, everything sounded-

Then she could hear it. Emma shot up in the seat, eyes wide. Coming from the campsite below her were horrified, gut-wrenching screams.

Emma grabbed her prized Winchester rifle in the front seat before scrambling out of the car and racing down the hall. The screaming and yelling just got louder and louder, making Emma's blood run cold.

Walkers were spilling into the camp, some had already begun tearing into camp members. One walker looked up at her from the still form of a girl that looked a little younger than Emma, mouth red with her blood and flesh stuck in its teeth. It opened its mouth to let out a snarl before Emma shot it in the forehead.

One of the blonde girls from before was hovering over the other one who was covered in blood. Dale and Morales were close to where Emma was, shooting and hitting walkers with a bat to keep them away.

Emma raised her rifle again and started firing, hitting most walkers square in the forehead, thanking her father silently for teaching her to shoot. She could see Shane trying to rally the survivors back towards the RV, Lori clinging to his shirt. But she couldn't see Carl…

Emma fired another couple of shots before seeing the boy, crying for his mother, scooting backwards on the ground from where he had tripped to get get away from the grabby, rotting hands. Emma raced forward and shot the one directly in front of his before pulling Carl to his feet. The boy wrapped his arms around her tightly as she continued shooting, backing up to try and get to the RV.

There were just so many of them…!

Emma had just run out of the ammo and switched to her handgun when more shots rang out from down the road. Rick and three other men were running towards them, all sporting weapons (several, actually) and all looking both exhausted and energized.

She took her eyes off the group to gun down three more walkers coming towards her and Carl. Carl buried his face in her stomach and, almost out of some basic instinct, Emma wrapped her free arm around his shoulders.

With the addition of the four men, the rest of the walkers fell quickly. Carl was still shaking, but he called out for his dad, making Rick run over to the pair of them. Carl immediately ran into his dad's arms, sobbing as Lori came running from behind Shane.

Rick looked up, meeting Emma's gaze. "Thank you." He said lowly, but the gratitude in his voice was unmistakable. "Thank you."

Emma nodded and stepped backwards, letting Rick lift Carl and go to Lori. The woman looked horrified and hugged Carl, assuring herself that he was still there.

Emma couldn't help but nothing, however, that Shane did not take his eyes off the family.

"I remember now," One of the men said, voice trembling, staring around at the bodies littering the ground of the campsite. "Why I dug the holes."

Only then, looking around at all the bodies, did Emma realize that she was shaking too.


End file.
